Press Releases

Cancer usually begins in one location and then spreads, but in 3-5% of cancer patients, the tissue where a cancer began is unknown. In these individuals a cancer diagnosis is made because it has metastasized to other sites. Patients with these so-called “cancers of unknown primary,” or CUP, have a very poor prognosis, with a median survival of three months. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology finds that family members of CUP patients are at higher risk of developing CUP themselves, as well as cancers of the lung, pancreas, colon, and some cancers of the blood.

Aspirin has been shown to decrease the risk of colorectal cancer and possibly other cancers. However, the risk of side effects, including in some cases severe gastrointestinal bleeding, makes it necessary to better understand the mechanisms by which aspirin acts at low doses before recommending it more generally as a preventative, says Cornelia Ulrich, PhD, Senior Director of Population Sciences at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced October 27 that it has approved, for the first time, an oncolytic (cancer-killing) viral therapy in the U.S. The drug was approved for use against late stage melanoma, a deadly skin cancer that can be difficult to treat.

Why elephants rarely get cancer is a mystery that has stumped scientists for decades. A study led by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and Arizona State University, and including researchers from the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation, may have found the answer.

As part of a multi-institutional effort, researchers with Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah have found that multiple myeloma patients with a genetic variation in the gene FOPNL die on average 1-3 years sooner than patients without it.

Children with cancer have a good chance of surviving the disease—today more than 80% survive due to advances in treatment and care. However, recent studies have shown that some of these more than 420,000 U.S. childhood cancer survivors face future health related challenges as they become adults such as a second cancer diagnosis, cardiac failure, or other severe medical complications.

Compared to other types of breast cancer, triple negative breast cancers are often more aggressive and have fewer treatment options. In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah have identified a molecular mechanism that triple negative breast cancer cells use to survive and grow.

Martin McMahon, Ph.D., joins Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah in August as Professor in the Department of Dermatology and HCI Senior Director of Pre-Clinical Translation.
Professor McMahon is currently the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of California, San Francisco and Assistant Director of Professional Education and Co-leader of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (HCFCCC) Developmental Therapeutics Program.

Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have found that defects in how cells are squeezed out of overcrowded tissue to die, a process called extrusion, may be a mechanism by which pancreatic cancer begins. From these findings, they may have identified an effective way to reverse the defective extrusion’s effects without destroying normal tissues nearby. The results were published in the latest edition of the journal eLife.

A discovery by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute shows that looking at whether a man’s uncles and great-grandparents, among other second- and third-degree relatives, had prostate cancer could be as important as looking at whether his father had prostate cancer. A more complete family history would give physicians a new tool to decide whether or not a PSA test was appropriate.

Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) discovered the unusual role of lactate in the metabolism of alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS), a rare, aggressive cancer that primarily affects adolescents and young adults. The study also confirmed that a fusion gene is the cancer-causing agent in this disease. The research results were published online in the journal Cancer Cell November 26.

Michael Deininger, MD, PhD, a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) investigator and professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah, has been listed among the world’s Highly Cited Researchers in 2014 by Thomson Reuters, an international media firm. The list includes more than 3,000 authors worldwide in 21 science and social science fields, representing the top 1% of authors most cited in their specialty areas for the years 2002 to 2012.

Neeraj Agarwal, MD, a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) investigator and associate professor of medicine at the University of Utah, has received the 2014 Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This highly competitive award recognizes exceptional cancer investigators for contributions to advancing clinical research through collaborative team science.

A team of researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) will receive more than $1 million over the next three years from a Department of Defense grant to investigate the cellular controls that contribute to breast cancer metastasis.

A team of physician-researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) will receive nearly $3.6 million over the next five years in a cooperative agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a Network Lead Academic Participating Site (NLAPS). The award places HCI in an elite group of only 30 to 40 NLAPS locations nationwide; these sites are part of the NIH effort to create a new National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN).

Huntsman Cancer Foundation President and CEO, David Huntsman, announced today that the Jon M. Huntsman family and Huntsman Cancer Foundation have made another gift in the amount of $5,000,000 to seed the establishment of a Center of Excellence in Women’s Cancers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). In announcing the gift, Mr. Huntsman stated, “We understand the importance of striking an appropriate balance between investing in buildings and equipment, and also investing in programs and people at Huntsman Cancer Institute. This gift will support the recruitment of top talent in the cancer field to speed discovery from bench to bedside to benefit mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters.”

Only 15% of patients with squamous cell lung cancer – the second most common lung cancer – survive five years past diagnosis. Little is understood about how the deadly disease arises, preventing development of targeted therapies that could serve as a second line of defense once standard chemotherapy regimens fail.